The present invention relates to a system and method for the alerting of victims of the change of status of a defendant in the criminal justice system.
The rights of victims in the criminal justice system is receiving considerable attention today in the midst of a significant violent crime rate and early release of many offenders due to the over crowding of prisons. Many states have passed legislation enacting the right of victims to be alerted to the early release or other changes in status of defendants and mandating that the state justice system timely notify the victims of such change in status. The system for notification has been difficult to implement for various reasons. Victims are extremely mobile and difficult to locate, requiring considerable personal effort and consequential outlay of expenses in a time of governmental budgetary limitations. Moreover, because such systems involve numerous status changes and the notification effort of busy personnel, they are highly prone to error, miscommunications and complete oversight. Most "home grown" systems have proven to be ineffective and the governmental agencies often involved make little or no effort to call victims. The failed approaches result in victims being forced to make repeated and, in many instances unsuccessful, calls to the appropriated agencies to receive status changes. The mental stress and trauma to victims caused by the failed systems can be significant coupled with a high potential of injurious attacks perpetrated by certain vindicative defendants.
It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide for an effective and dependable system for the timely notification of victims of a change of judicial status of defendants.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide for a victim notification system that verifies that the recipient of a notification is the victim.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide for a victim notification system that is flexible and expandable to satisfy a wide variety of options, laws and regulations of different localities.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide for a victim notification system that is economically affordable and technological accessible to all communities, particularly to communities of small populations.